In the first post I mentioned which one I use most. There is , however a very well used second one. Again, not the most expensive one, on the contrary.
I saw this 15X70 while it was used during an outreach by a man, who had as result of a condition light spastic movements. I saw him struggle with it. I offered my 8X56 Horizon with tumble-focusser ( as you already have guessed, a crosseyed secondhand one, but cleaned and well restored) . He was grateful, relieved and fell instantly in love with it. With my binoculars he could actually see things! I saw that his 15X70, although very common, had fairly good optics. The end of the story was that we both went home with another pair of binoculars than we came with.
Both happy. He still observes with it. It had to be like that.
It is a 15X70 Celestron Skymaster, 1500 grams, 4,4 degrees field of view.
What I like about it:
- Still a rather nice field of view. 4,4 degrees. ( Smaller of course than the 7,3 degrees of my Jena, but you can't have it all)
- Its weight allows me to sit in a garden-chair, lean back, elbows on the armrests and observe without getting instant arm-muscle-pain. Handheld is
possible while sitting down. Couldn't be more convenient. OK,ok I endure longer with my 1000 gram Jena.
- It reaches to stars of magnitude 9,2 versus 8,8 in my 10X50 in the backyard. Not that one can see it instantly, it takes a tripod.
- Many
Messier objects pop up under my light polluted city sky. More than with my 10X50 Jena.
- Although one sometimes hears horror stories about the optics, this one does rather well. ( no false spikes around Vega).
Dislike:
- Not the firmest of all binoculars I had.